Emergency 2 way rec?

[GarySanchez]

It can't fail at it's job. That's the requirement. It's gotta call out to emergency about 5 miles deep, maybe more with 13-14ers surrounding in some pretty dense forest. What do you guys think?

[John_B]

Garmin Inreach seems to be the gold standard for 2 way communication. The best non subscription based two way communicator over shorter distances might be a HAM radio?

[GarySanchez]

Thanks for the info.

Looking at a Kenwood TK-3402 for emergency channel monitoring.

[MakersTeleMark]

[nickel]

if you've got the frequency list for your area, baofeng radios have served me quite well. Definitely wouldn't be what i would refer to as a fool proof emergency contact device though, only a highly useful one.

As above, garmin in reach seems to be the gold standard with many negative reports about spot products.

[GarySanchez]

if you've got the frequency list for your area, baofeng radios have served me quite well. Definitely wouldn't be what i would refer to as a fool proof emergency contact device though, only a highly useful one.

As above, garmin in reach seems to be the gold standard with many negative reports about spot products.

Yes. My area is pretty much all 2 way. I did look at some Baofeng radios. They're very inexpensive and seem to be widely used. Motorola VX-261 was on the list too.

I'll be carrying an inreach for sure. Nothing is reliable so you gotta try every and all.

[GarySanchez]

So you're saying use the matches to burn my own feces, sending smoke signal stink to emergency services down valley?

[anotherVTskibum]

Yes. My area is pretty much all 2 way. I did look at some Baofeng radios. They're very inexpensive and seem to be widely used. Motorola VX-261 was on the list too.

I'll be carrying an inreach for sure. Nothing is reliable so you gotta try every and all.

The Baofengs have very mixed reviews from the ham sites. Some of the guys who have done more thorough testing report spurious emissions (i.e. emitting on frequencies other than those programmed), others report they work pretty well but don't quite put out the advertised power (e.g. 4W on a 5W-nominal radio). My experience has been pretty good as far as being able to leave it sitting for weeks at a time and pull it out and use it (i.e. it holds a charge when not in use). There are some slightly more expensive Chinese radios out there that get better reviews while still being cheaper than big-name units; YMMV.

I have one that I've been happy with, used mostly for monitoring a couple of local public-safety frequencies (programmed *not* to transmit), but also as an actual HT while working a car race (forest rally). For cross-banding to a nearby mobile setup, it worked great (for me); for directly communicating with other points on stage, I had to swap out the whip antenna (which is already an upgrade from the stock rubber ducky) to a roll-up J-pole I purchased off Amazon. If you're dealing with forested areas, the roll-up J-pole is a great way to mitigate some terrain blockage with a minimal weight penalty.

I generally don't bother carrying the radio when I've got my InReach with me, as I consider satellite comms with a dedicated commercial provider to be more reliable than hoping to hit a repeater and find someone willing to relay to EMS/SAR, even if know I can hit a repeater (and the latter is a question mark; even if I know I can hit the repeater from the top of the mountain, as soon as you get below a ridgeline, the whole line-of-sight limitation becomes a PITA). If I felt a need to have two-way comms in the mountains without satellites, I'd be looking at HF, but that's a whole 'nother ball of wax for cost and complexity (I think, I haven't gone down that rabbit hole yet).

[gregorys]

The Baofengs have very mixed reviews from the ham sites. Some of the guys who have done more thorough testing report spurious emissions (i.e. emitting on frequencies other than those programmed), others report they work pretty well but don't quite put out the advertised power (e.g. 4W on a 5W-nominal radio). My experience has been pretty good as far as being able to leave it sitting for weeks at a time and pull it out and use it (i.e. it holds a charge when not in use). There are some slightly more expensive Chinese radios out there that get better reviews while still being cheaper than big-name units; YMMV.

I have one that I've been happy with, used mostly for monitoring a couple of local public-safety frequencies (programmed *not* to transmit), but also as an actual HT while working a car race (forest rally). For cross-banding to a nearby mobile setup, it worked great (for me); for directly communicating with other points on stage, I had to swap out the whip antenna (which is already an upgrade from the stock rubber ducky) to a roll-up J-pole I purchased off Amazon. If you're dealing with forested areas, the roll-up J-pole is a great way to mitigate some terrain blockage with a minimal weight penalty.

I generally don't bother carrying the radio when I've got my InReach with me, as I consider satellite comms with a dedicated commercial provider to be more reliable than hoping to hit a repeater and find someone willing to relay to EMS/SAR, even if know I can hit a repeater (and the latter is a question mark; even if I know I can hit the repeater from the top of the mountain, as soon as you get below a ridgeline, the whole line-of-sight limitation becomes a PITA). If I felt a need to have two-way comms in the mountains without satellites, I'd be looking at HF, but that's a whole 'nother ball of wax for cost and complexity (I think, I haven't gone down that rabbit hole yet).

+1 to all that.
I'm a long time HAM license holder - and while the HT's are awesome, I don't think you should count on a VHF/UHF radio [any radio] for emergency comms - other than perhaps to other people in your party in close proximity. All those radios need line of sight. HF might get you other options, but I'm not aware of any portable antenna for HF, or any realistically portable HT's. I've personally, and fairly recently done some testing in "real-life" situations, being somewhere I don't have a programmed repeater, and searching a list for ones nearby and seeing if I could get to them. In modest terrain, I generally could. In less great terrain [even smallish canyons/draws] make it very difficult to get to even high repeaters. Add in the time and fiddle of doing a non-programmed frequency+offset[+perhaps a CTCSS/DTS] and that radio becomes pretty fussy and easy to screw up. And doing that fussing is going to take time. It's going to be hard to be steady enough to do all that with someone injured - and if it's you - well, I'm pretty good when I'm hurting, and I wouldn't be counting on that for myself, in general.

The off-brand/cheap HT's do just fine for most anything - I've personally used a number of them. You do get what you pay for, but the off-brand radios give you an incredible ratio of reasonable radio to cost. [They sacrifice a few [quite-a-few, depending] things, but also shed a huge amount of cost. IMO way more cost than truly needed features.]

So, the InReach just seems like a far superior answer to a radio, and a radio would be my second choice - it's just a way-down-the-list second choice.

[summit]

HAM and SAR here.

Get an InReach for summoning organized rescue.

HT's are fantastic at their primary purpose: intra-group communication to avoid getting into an emergency. FRS/GMRS is fine for this, unless you want to get a HAM license.

You don't know when your HT will be out of range of the repeater. If you are going to try and hit a government repeater or amateur repeater in an emergency, and you don't have a license, you better hope your radio/antenna works on the repeater frequency AND is programmed correctly for the repeater AND the settings haven't changed AND you aren't travelling some place you don't know the local repeaters... and that you know this for certain because you'll not be able to test it before your emergency. You can't broadcast for a radio check to see if you are receivable because talking on those repeaters outside of a life or limb emergency is illegal without a license (meaning you work for the repeater owner and have permission, or a HAM license for the amateur repeater).

The only time I can think in 16 years of rescue where someone used a radio to summon help was a licensed HAM on a HAM repeater network, and the receiving HAM on the net had to get bounced to multiple 911 centers before the message got to the right place.

So get an InReach. It even works internationally.

[anotherVTskibum]

HAM and SAR here.

Get an InReach for summoning organized rescue.

HT's are fantastic at their primary purpose: intra-group communication to avoid getting into an emergency. FRS/GMRS is fine for this, unless you want to get a HAM license.

\

One other use case I've heard for HTs, particularly FRS/GMRS, is to be able to tell the InReach comms center to tell the SAR team that you've got a radio on FRS channel 5 or whatever, thus allowing them direct comms that much sooner. Would you agree with that suggestion? As a former patroller, I can see the benefit, if both rescuers and the party in need of help have an appropriate radio handy.

[summit]

One other use case I've heard for HTs, particularly FRS/GMRS, is to be able to tell the InReach comms center to tell the SAR team that you've got a radio on FRS channel 5 or whatever, thus allowing them direct comms that much sooner. Would you agree with that suggestion? As a former patroller, I can see the benefit, if both rescuers and the party in need of help have an appropriate radio handy.

Yes. That is a very good point!

Before I got an InReach, I had a PLB. In the PLB registration you can put a user description so you can put known medical issues etc to be given to the local rescue team. Mine read "Attempt contact on FRS/GMRS Channel 2 code 3"

We have some FRS radios in the rescue truck solely to communicate with parties in distress. I cannot recall us actually using them.